N01078:37
The just man's prerogative. A sermon preached privately, Sept. 27. 1706. on a solemn…
The just man's prerogative. A sermon preached privately, Sept. 27. 1706. on a solemn occasion; for the consolation of a sorrowful family, mourning over the immature death, of a pious son, viz Mr. Simeon Stoddard, who was found barbarously murdered, in Chelsea-Fields near London, May 14. 1706. / By S. Willard. ; [Two lines from II Samuel]
printed by B. Green. Sold by Nicholas Boone, 1706
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. He is able to Accomplish it. There is nothing too hard for him to do: not only his good Will, but his Power too, stand to ratify it. Men who Promise Sincerely, may yet fail through defect of ability, but he never can: how often therefore doth he put them in mind of his ability, and would have them to acquiesce in it? There is nothing else can offer us any rational discouragements, and I am sure that this is as unreasonable as any thing else: for, as he can bring good out of evil, so he can turn that which in its own nature is Evil, into Good, and bring the greatest real benefit out of it, and can make Poison it self a Cordial.
2. He is able to Accomplish it. There is nothing too hard for him to do: not only his good Will, but his Power too, stand to ratify it. Men who Promise Sincerely, may yet fail through defect of ability, but he never can: how often therefore doth he put them in mind of his ability, and would have them to acquiess in it? There is nothing else can offer us any rational discouragements, and I am sure that this is as unreasonable as any thing else: for, as he can bring good out of evil, so he can turn that which in its own nature is Evil, into Good, and bring the greatest real benefit out of it, and can make Poyson it self a Cordial.
3. His Glory is concerned in it. As God designed the manifestation of the Glory of his Grace in the Salvation of his Chosen, so he proposed the declaration of other of his Perfections in the way by which he would bring it about: and one thing herein concerned, is that he would accomplish it through many Tribulations. And it will be an Eternal Wonder, and commend his Wisdom and Power, to see a thing so frail as the Believer is here, so often tossed with Tempests, and beaten upon with the Hurricanes of Affliction, not only kept up under and through all, and not be foundered; but that every one of them hath contributed to the making of his Eternal Crown the more Massy, as we are assured that it shall, in the fore-cited, 2 Cor. 4.17. Haec olim meminisse juvabit. And when we shall look back from